Photo manipulation, at its very core, is surrealist. The results are often unnerving and illogical, but with photographic precision. London-based creative production studio Happy Finish offers high-end retouching as one of its many capabilities to a vast array of notable clients including Nike, Google, Samsonite, Gillette and Smirnoff, to name a few. Here are a handful of samples of Happy Finish’s work that could honestly stand on their own, outside of any marketing context, as thought-provoking works of art. Hats off to the talented artists at Happy Finish for elevating CGI to a whole new level.

With the proliferation of digital photography, pared with editing software like Photoshop, photo retouching is basically the norm these days. There has certainly been some controversy (good example here) surrounding the practice, especially when it comes to the issue of misrepresentation. Hungarian photographer/artist Flora Borsi specializes in digital manipulation, but with surprising effect that can even be described as unnerving. Turning retouching on its head, with her project Stockify, Borsi’s work clearly finds inspiration from legendary surrealist painters that came before her, most notably Picasso and Dali. Borsi brings the fundamentals of surrealist artwork, particularly unexpected juxtapositions, to the digital age with this arresting series. In her own words, “In this project I’ve been analyzing some fashion portraits, how perfect they are. So I made the opposite of retouching, somehow I distouched these pictures of perfect models. This project is connected to surrealist painters point of view: beauty wasn’t enough to give me interest. I love imperfections as much as I love surrealism. These pictures are my little monsters, no one wants to look like them, because they are totally unique.”

When done well, surrealist digital photography can be like stepping into a dream (here and here). Poland-based photographer Beata Bieniak has a terrific body of work, but we were struck by many of her manipulated works that have a dream-like feel. And feeling is clearly at the heart of Bieniak’s work. Uniquely whimsical and poignant at the same time, Bieniak takes the viewer on a journey into her vivid imagination.